This invention relates to swim goggles and masks for swimmers.
The use of face masks for swimmers and smaller swimming goggles is well known, such products having been used for some time. A face mask designed to cover the eyes and nose of a swimmer has a transparent viewing portion which may take the form of a single window. A flexible flange, which may be made of rubber or rubber-like material can form a frame portion around the window and acts to provide a water tight seal between the face mask and the face of the swimmer. Thus, water is excluded from the space between the swimmer's eyes and the transparent viewing portion.
In the case of goggles designed only to cover the eyes, there can be a pair of small face plates or lenses, each mounted in a flexible flange forming a surrounding frame. A flexible strap can be used to attach the goggles or the face mask to the swimmer's head.
Although it is often desirable when swimming, particularly when using certain strokes such as the crawl, to arrange one's body in a horizontal or prone position with one's face immersed in water, this will result in the swimmer's line of vision being directed downwardly. As a result, it can be difficult for the swimmer to maintain a desired course and to properly see approaching objects or other swimmers and this situation may even result in some danger to the swimmer. For example, when a swimmer in a pool has his face directed downwardly, he or she may not see the wall of the pool as he or she approaches it. This can be a particularly serious problem if the swimmer is involved a race and is seeking to achieve maximum speed through the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,959 which issued Oct. 27, 1959 to B. B. Girden describes a special swimming face mask equipped with a periscope. This device enables a swimmer to not only direct his view downwardly through the face plate of the mask for observing underwater activity but also, without shifting his head, to conveniently view the scene above the surface of the water through the periscope. However, this known device would be reasonably expensive to construct and it is only designed to view scenes above the surface of the water in addition to the view seen along the normal line of vision through the face mask. It is not designed to permit the swimmer to view the underwater scene ahead of him in the direction of swimming motion while his head is facing downwardly in the water. Also, it is believed that this known device would not be particularly suitable for swimmers involved in a race, for example, as it would interfere too much with the swimming motion of the swimmer and would tend to slow down the swimming motion of the swimmer.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide goggles for swimming that will permit a swimmer not only to view a scene along his normal line of vision, whether the swimmer is in the water or not, but will also permit the swimmer to view an object or objects horizontally in front of him or her while the swimmer is swimming with his head facing generally downwardly in the water.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved set of goggles or an improved face mask for swimming which can be made at a reasonable cost competitive with other goggles and face masks but which permits the wearer not only to view a scene along his or her normal line of vision but also horizontally in front of the swimmer while he or she is swimming and has his or her head facing downwardly.